US denies Iran's drone capture

Washington: The United States has denied reports that Iran 'caught' and landed a small American drone flying over the Persian Gulf.

According to report by Iranian state-media, the unarmed drone, called a ScanEagle, was flying in Iranian airspace when it was brought down by the Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The U.S. Navy, however, said it did not lose the drone, adding that the ScanEagle is an "off the shelf variety" and could have belonged to another country, ABC News reports.

"The U.S. Navy has complete control over every unmanned vehicle we operate in the Middle East," the report quoted Cmd. Jason Salata of the Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, which manages naval assets in the region, as saying.

"We have lost ScanEagles in the past, but not recently," he added.

The commander of the Revolutionary Guard, Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi, told Iranian media that the drone had been conducting reconnaissance flights in the past few days when it was spotted and "hunted."

According to the report, Fadavi also boasted of Iran's "full intelligence supremacy" over foreign operations in the region.